Council On Competitiveness

The Bush administration issues regulations that will give manufacturers broad authority to substantially increase the amount of hazardous pollutants they pour into the atmosphere beginning in the mid 1990s. The rule had been championed by the President's Council on Competitiveness, a group headed by Vice President Dan Quayle.Details on Page 6A

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, signaling a swift break with the Bush administration's business-oriented attitude toward environmental and consumer issues, abolished a controversial legislative review council in one of his first executive acts this week.The dissolution of the White House Council on Competitiveness, which was chaired by former Vice President Dan Quayle, was used by Vice President Al Gore to stress his difference with his predecessor."Today we are sending a clear message to the special interests who used the Council on Competitiveness as a back-door to avoid the law," Mr. Gore said in a written statement.

WASHINGTON -- A day after supporting Senate action to hasten the elimination of chemicals eating away Earth's protective ozone layer, the Bush administration yesterday was accused of hamstringing its own Environmental Protection Agency in its efforts to do the same.A congressional panel said the Bush administration has been dragging its feet in writing the regulations needed to enforce the 1990 Clean Air Act. The law was passed to cut urban smog, auto emissions, acid rain and toxic air pollution, and phase out production of ozone-depleting refrigerant gases, known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.

WASHINGTON -- Backed by an assortment of industrial lobbyists, Vice President Dan Quayle urged President Bush early this week to weaken a tough air pollution regulation.So far, after a bitter internal dispute between his top aides, Mr. Bush has rebuffed Mr. Quayle's plea. But the episode is a vivid example of how lobbyists, aides and top administration officials are fighting for the president's approval on a variety of last-minute actions before he leaves office.In his last days, Mr. Bush has taken some actions that Mr. Clinton would probably oppose, most notably the Christmas Eve pardon of five former officials in the Iran-contra affair.

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dan Quayle and other senior administration officials are deadlocked with the Environmental Protection Agency over a bitterly contested EPA proposal that the public be notified when companies with pollution permits seek to raise permissible emissions.As a result of the stalemate, President Bush may be presented with each side's arguments within the next few days and be asked to make the decision himself.At stake are not only what the White House says is billions of dollars in potential costs to thousands of American companies but the political consequences of having to rule against the interests of either the business or environmental communities.

By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite and Gilbert A. Lewthwaite,Washington Bureau of The Sun | November 19, 1991

WASHINGTON -- President Bush should reverse his hands-off approach to the economy and forge a more active partnership with industry, according to a bipartisan poll released yesterday.By a ratio of 3-to-1, respondents endorsed a "hands-on" economic role for the government in a poll taken for the Council on Competitiveness, a non-profit, bipartisan group of industrialists, unionists and academics. The council is unrelated to the President's Council on Competitiveness, chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle.

"No net loss" of sensitive wetlands had a nice ring when presidential candidate George Bush said it in 1988, but the actual workings of President Bush's policy machine left many environmentalists quaking with anger. An estimated 400,000 acres of wetlands a year were disappearing even before the White House's stunning announcement of a wetlands policy that, had it reached implementation, would have lopped off half of the nation's remaining wetlands. These areas may look like so much surplus, unusable land to many farmers and developers, but they are critical to the health of waterways such as the Chesapeake Bay.Wetlands act as natural filters for pollutants, excess nutrients from storm water runoff and farm-field runoffs.

(TC WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dan Quayle's deputy chief of staff, already under fire for reviewing federal regulations that could benefit a company he co-owns, has a second possible conflict of interest involving his stock ownership in one of the nation's most polluting electric companies, a congressman said yesterday.Allan B. Hubbard appears to have "a direct conflict of interest" because he chaired a meeting at which an acid rain regulation was weakened to the possible benefit of PSI Resources Inc. of Indiana, said Representative Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, signaling a swift break with the Bush administration's business-oriented attitude toward environmental and consumer issues, abolished a controversial legislative review council in one of his first executive acts this week.The dissolution of the White House Council on Competitiveness, which was chaired by former Vice President Dan Quayle, was used by Vice President Al Gore to stress his difference with his predecessor."Today we are sending a clear message to the special interests who used the Council on Competitiveness as a back-door to avoid the law," Mr. Gore said in a written statement.

WASHINGTON -- Backed by an assortment of industrial lobbyists, Vice President Dan Quayle urged President Bush early this week to weaken a tough air pollution regulation.So far, after a bitter internal dispute between his top aides, Mr. Bush has rebuffed Mr. Quayle's plea. But the episode is a vivid example of how lobbyists, aides and top administration officials are fighting for the president's approval on a variety of last-minute actions before he leaves office.In his last days, Mr. Bush has taken some actions that Mr. Clinton would probably oppose, most notably the Christmas Eve pardon of five former officials in the Iran-contra affair.

Here are excerpts of a speech prepared for delivery to the Republican National Convention in Houston last night by Vice President Dan Quayle:. . . I know my critics wish I were not standing here tonight. They don't like our values. They look down on our beliefs. They're afraid of our ideas. And they know the American people stand on our side. That is why, when someone confronts them and challenges them, they will stop at nothing to destroy him. To them I say: You have failed. I stand before you, and before the American people -- unbowed, unbroken and ready to keep fighting for our beliefs.

The Bush administration issues regulations that will give manufacturers broad authority to substantially increase the amount of hazardous pollutants they pour into the atmosphere beginning in the mid 1990s. The rule had been championed by the President's Council on Competitiveness, a group headed by Vice President Dan Quayle.Details on Page 6A

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dan Quayle and other senior administration officials are deadlocked with the Environmental Protection Agency over a bitterly contested EPA proposal that the public be notified when companies with pollution permits seek to raise permissible emissions.As a result of the stalemate, President Bush may be presented with each side's arguments within the next few days and be asked to make the decision himself.At stake are not only what the White House says is billions of dollars in potential costs to thousands of American companies but the political consequences of having to rule against the interests of either the business or environmental communities.

WASHINGTON -- A day after supporting Senate action to hasten the elimination of chemicals eating away Earth's protective ozone layer, the Bush administration yesterday was accused of hamstringing its own Environmental Protection Agency in its efforts to do the same.A congressional panel said the Bush administration has been dragging its feet in writing the regulations needed to enforce the 1990 Clean Air Act. The law was passed to cut urban smog, auto emissions, acid rain and toxic air pollution, and phase out production of ozone-depleting refrigerant gases, known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.

(TC WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dan Quayle's deputy chief of staff, already under fire for reviewing federal regulations that could benefit a company he co-owns, has a second possible conflict of interest involving his stock ownership in one of the nation's most polluting electric companies, a congressman said yesterday.Allan B. Hubbard appears to have "a direct conflict of interest" because he chaired a meeting at which an acid rain regulation was weakened to the possible benefit of PSI Resources Inc. of Indiana, said Representative Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif.

"No net loss" of sensitive wetlands had a nice ring when presidential candidate George Bush said it in 1988, but the actual workings of President Bush's policy machine left many environmentalists quaking with anger. An estimated 400,000 acres of wetlands a year were disappearing even before the White House's stunning announcement of a wetlands policy that, had it reached implementation, would have lopped off half of the nation's remaining wetlands. These areas may look like so much surplus, unusable land to many farmers and developers, but they are critical to the health of waterways such as the Chesapeake Bay.Wetlands act as natural filters for pollutants, excess nutrients from storm water runoff and farm-field runoffs.

Here are excerpts of a speech prepared for delivery to the Republican National Convention in Houston last night by Vice President Dan Quayle:. . . I know my critics wish I were not standing here tonight. They don't like our values. They look down on our beliefs. They're afraid of our ideas. And they know the American people stand on our side. That is why, when someone confronts them and challenges them, they will stop at nothing to destroy him. To them I say: You have failed. I stand before you, and before the American people -- unbowed, unbroken and ready to keep fighting for our beliefs.

By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite and Gilbert A. Lewthwaite,Washington Bureau of The Sun | November 18, 1991

WASHINGTON -- A little-known arm of the executive branch of government headed by Vice President Dan Quayle is causing increased concern among Democratic members of Congress over the secrecy of its operations and its unaccountability.The President's Council on Competitiveness is accused by legislators of lowering national environmental, public health and worker safety standards, including some actions that could pose a threat to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.When committees in both the Senate and the House held hearings last week on the council's operations, council staff -- citing executive privilege -- refused to testify to either panel.

By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite and Gilbert A. Lewthwaite,Washington Bureau of The Sun | November 19, 1991

WASHINGTON -- President Bush should reverse his hands-off approach to the economy and forge a more active partnership with industry, according to a bipartisan poll released yesterday.By a ratio of 3-to-1, respondents endorsed a "hands-on" economic role for the government in a poll taken for the Council on Competitiveness, a non-profit, bipartisan group of industrialists, unionists and academics. The council is unrelated to the President's Council on Competitiveness, chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle.

By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite and Gilbert A. Lewthwaite,Washington Bureau of The Sun | November 18, 1991

WASHINGTON -- A little-known arm of the executive branch of government headed by Vice President Dan Quayle is causing increased concern among Democratic members of Congress over the secrecy of its operations and its unaccountability.The President's Council on Competitiveness is accused by legislators of lowering national environmental, public health and worker safety standards, including some actions that could pose a threat to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.When committees in both the Senate and the House held hearings last week on the council's operations, council staff -- citing executive privilege -- refused to testify to either panel.